In advertising, it is considered highly desirable to target advertisements to an appropriate potential customer base, rather than to broadcast advertisements to a general segment of the population. Many companies attempt to obtain information about customers so they may identify particular customers having potential interests in specific products and services, and then directly market those customers at some time in the future.
Concurrently, advertisers continue to look for new ways to advertise their products, and to advertise more effectively. Methods of targeting advertisements have become increasingly sophisticated. For example, many grocery stores now print coupons for customers at the checkout counter. These coupons provide discounts for items similar to those the customers has just purchased. Similarly, revenues from Internet advertisements continue to grow as Internet web sites provide constantly updated advertisements to visiting consumers.
As is known, telephony-based advertising systems may include automated answering devices that queue an incoming call when no attendant is immediately available. While a caller waits in a holding queue, a processor may solicit and collect initial information from the caller. This solicited information may then be used to select and deliver to the caller customized information. Alternatively, a caller's profile may be stored in a database containing various demographic and consumer characteristics. As the caller waits on hold, a processor may select and play advertisements matching the caller's characteristics.
Targeted marketing during video telephone calls is also not new. Such systems operate in a telecommunications network to provide targeted advertising to callers who utilize display screens to conduct a video telephone call. While a call is in progress, advertisements matching a caller's profile may be selected and presented on the caller's display screen.
The present invention is directed to the problem of providing targeted advertising to telephone callers as they are dialing numbers to initiate a telephone call. Such advertisements would provide callers with targeted offers that are influenced by the partial dialing of telephone numbers, as well as related to a caller's telephone usage history.